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Fred Child Fred Child is the host of America's most-listened-to classical music radio program, NPR's Performance Today. The program reaches 1.5 million listeners on 250 stations around the country. The program features classical music in concert around the nation and the world, in concert from the NPR studios, and classical music news, interviews, and issues.

Fred Child

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Favorite Sessions

Pierre-Laurent Aimard and the Art of the Etude

American Public Media

August 23, 2007 • An Etude is basically a practice piece, designed to improve a certain aspect of technique. But the Etudes Claude Debussy composed go far beyond that. Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard unfolds the layers of colorful detail in Debussy's Etudes, in the studio with host Fred Child.

Music Interviews

Jerry Hadley, Operatic Tenor, Dies at 55

American Public Media

July 19, 2007 • American tenor Jerry Hadley died Wednesday after eight days in a coma. The protege of soprano Dame Joan Sutherland and her husband, conductor Richard Bonynge, was a leading American tenor for almost 20 years. He had a voice that could be rich and dramatic or light and lively.

Favorite Sessions

Anne-Sophie Mutter's Journey to Mozart

American Public Media

July 19, 2007 • Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter has been making her way through all of Mozart's major violin works. She stopped by the studio, with her longtime pianist and collaborator Lambert Orkis, to play selections from Mozart's Violin Sonatas.

Music Interviews

Mozart's Less-Than-Warm Relationship with Salzburg

January 27, 2006 • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 250th birthday is being celebrated in a major way Friday in Salzburg, Austria, the composer's birthplace. The city has made an industry of the commercialization of Mozart, and the celebration of his music — even though Mozart couldn't wait to leave it.

Mozart's Less-Than-Warm Relationship with Salzburg

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Mozart's 250th Birthday

Mozart: The Child Prodigy in Salzburg

November 4, 2005 • Renowned Mozart scholar Neal Zaslaw explores the composer's early years. And we hear performances of three Mozart symphonies: Symphony No. 11, Symphony No. 35 and the closing movement from the Symphony, K. 96.

Mozart: The Child Prodigy in Salzburg

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Celebrating the Centennial of Debussy's 'La Mer'

October 14, 2005 • A century ago, Claude Debussy's symphonic tone poem "La Mer" premiered in Paris. Conductors Pierre Boulez and David Robertson talk about the impressionistic harmonies of this milestone piece. And a performance by the Central German Radio Symphony comes to us from Leipzig, with Fabio Luisi conducting.

Celebrating the Centennial of Debussy's 'La Mer'

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Music Interviews

John Adams Writes an Opera for the Atomic Age

October 7, 2005 • The eagerly anticipated third opera from John Adams, Doctor Atomic, premiered Oct. 1 at the San Francisco Opera. Based on Richard Rhodes' book The Making of the Atomic Bomb, the new opera focuses on physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and the project he led in creating the first atomic bomb.

John Adams Writes an Opera for the Atomic Age

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Kreisler, Tchaikovsky, Sarasate

September 25, 2005 • Joshua Bell joins host Fred Child in Studio 4A for a chat and a sparkling performance. Along with pianist Matthew Bengtson, he plays the Praeludium and Liebesleid by Fritz Kreisler, the Melodie by Tchaikovsky, and Sarasate's Introduction and Tarantella.

Kreisler, Tchaikovsky, Sarasate

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Kreisler, Tchaikovsky, Sarasate

September 24, 2005 • Joshua Bell joins host Fred Child in Studio 4A for a chat and a sparkling performance. Along with pianist Matthew Bengtson, he plays the Praeludium and Liebesleid by Fritz Kreisler, the Melodie by Tchaikovsky, and Sarasate's Introduction and Tarantella.

Kreisler, Tchaikovsky, Sarasate

Audio will be available later today.

Kreisler, Tchaikovsky, Sarasate

September 20, 2005 • Joshua Bell joins host Fred Child in Studio 4A for a chat and a sparkling performance. Along with pianist Matthew Bengtson, he plays the Praeludium and Liebesleid by Fritz Kreisler, the Melodie by Tchaikovsky, and Sarasate's Introduction and Tarantella.

Kreisler, Tchaikovsky, Sarasate

Audio will be available later today.

In Performance

Joshua Bell, Nobody's Second Fiddle

September 20, 2005 • Joshua Bell has won a Grammy, and his playing helped composer John Corigliano to an Oscar for The Red Violin. At 37, Bell has played with every major orchestra in the world. He joins Fred Child for music and conversation in NPR's Studio 4A.

Joshua Bell, Nobody's Second Fiddle

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Dankner

September 18, 2005 • Many of the musicians displaced by the hurricane are members of the Louisiana Philharmonic, which is based in New Orleans. Two members of the orchestra talk with host Fred Child about their recent experiences, and we hear from one of the orchestra's recordings. Klauspeter Seibel leads the Louisiana Philharmonic in the second movement, the Andante, from the Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra by Stephen Dankner. The saxophonist is Lawrence Gwozdz.

Dankner

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Preservation Hall Jazz Band

September 18, 2005 • One important and prominent symbol of jazz in New Orleans is Preservation Hall, and its resident band, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Ben Jaffe, bass player and director of the band, stayed in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Host Fred Child talks with Jaffe about his experiences, about the New Orleans jazz tradition, and his belief that it will survive. We also hear the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, under Jaffe's direction, play a piece called "Careless Love."

Preservation Hall Jazz Band

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Gottschalk

September 18, 2005 • Louis Moreau Gottschalk was a composer whose music contributed greatly to New Orleans' musical heritage. Later in the hour, host Fred Child talks with author and commentator Frederick Starr about Gottschalk's legacy. First, we get a taste of his piano music. Philip Martin plays Gottschalk's "Berceuse."

Gottschalk

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Gottschalk

September 18, 2005 • Frederick Starr, an author, scholar and professor, has a lot to say about the musical traditions of New Orleans. Host Fred Child talks with Starr about the city's musical past. And we hear music from a composer who plays a large role in that tradition, Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Pianist Philip Martin plays Gottschalk's "La Savane."

Gottschalk

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